


The Sweetest Smiles

by inthisdive



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-29 23:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12095736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthisdive/pseuds/inthisdive
Summary: Claudia and Mary Anne are friends even without Kristy. Pre- Kristy’s Great Idea. For sarahbeware and the Mary Anne round of short_takes. This was written in 2008.





	The Sweetest Smiles

Claudia has tried to curl her hair and Mary Anne thinks the consistency of it is like cotton candy: she smiles brightly, and Claudia doesn’t ask her why she’s smiling, just says, “Isn’t it wild?” and links her arm through Mary Anne’s, leading her into SMS. 

Mary Anne feels happy, and she’s grateful to Claudia for that. 

*

They don’t spend much time together without Kristy, and with Mary Anne’s limited free time after school means that the time they spend alone is sometimes incrementally tiny; it’s small enough that sometimes, somehow, Mary Anne still feels shy. 

When Claudia hugs her impulsively and says “I love you, Mary Anne,” the blush on Mary Anne’s face spells it all out: _I love you too, Claudia, I wish we knew each other better, I’m not cool enough for you._

They hug, and Mary Anne laughs. It’s a laugh she’s never heard from herself before: impulsive, spontaneous, happy, and – she thinks – it’s all Claudia’s. She doesn’t know what that means, and it doesn’t matter.

* 

The next week, Claudia and Mary Anne are in the girl’s room at lunch, and Claudia is primping in the mirror. Mary Anne doesn’t understand make up and so she’s standing away from the mirror; she’s behind Claudia, a little to the side, and she doesn’t know if she’s fascinated or scared by the transformations on Claudia’s face. 

It’s the first time Mary Anne has ever noticed anyone’s cheekbones. Ever.

Claudia isn’t silent, filling the room with chatter about art, and this new song she likes that Mary Anne has, of course, never heard of, and other inconsequential things. Mary Anne is smiling, listening more to the tune of the words than the words themselves until Claudia says: 

“But it wouldn’t suit you, you know?”

Mary Anne backtracks, follows the web of conversation in her head. What wouldn’t suit her? Claudia’s current hairstyle, double-double pigtails, two on each side of her head.

“I wish things suited me,” she tells Claudia, wistful.

“Your braids do,” Claudia says, and Mary Anne looks at her, wide-eyed.

“You can see your whole face. You’d be pretty if –“

“My Dad,” Mary Anne says, filling in the blanks, but in her head, all she’s saying is _Claudia thinks I could be pretty_.

For the first time in her life, Mary Anne believes it. She feels special.

And Mary Anne knows that later, when Kristy asks what she and Claudia talked about in the bathroom, she won’t tell her that part.

* 

With her father’s permission, that afternoon Mary Anne has baked cookies for the neighbors. Kristy’s are in a neat little container for later; they’re having a sleepover and Mary Anne doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.

Claudia’s are sitting in a matching container, but they’re a little different. In Mary Anne’s cursive, there are Cs, and hearts, and CKs. They took her longer than she’d expected. They’re lopsided, but she means all the clumsy frosting-meaning she could squeeze out onto the cookies, surface dotted with chocolate-chip craters underneath her art.

Mimi meets Mary Anne at the door and after a hug and whispered conversation about their health and the sunny afternoon light outside, Mary Anne walks up the stairs. 

“Claudia?” she calls, and her voice is quiet as always, but it bounces back at her with an echo. 

She feels out of place in the house; her sounds don’t fit. 

Then Claudia – head only – appears around the doorjamb, and Mary Anne says “I brought cookies,” and Claudia grins, and Mary Anne forgets everything but that smile. 

Sweet as sugar.

*


End file.
